Judge Rules for Don Henley in Latest Campaign Ad Spat

Two items about Eagles alums in one day, you say? Well, there's a first for everything. But unlike Joe Walsh's rather insane, Benny Hill-like ordeal, his former bandmate Don Henley is mired in a serious legal skirmish that once again concerns a politician getting sued for copyright infringement thanks to the music selection in their political ads.

Yet while fellow musicians David Byrne and Jackson Browne are still embroiled in their own similar legal tussles, Henley's case is the actually the first to go to court and get judgement, with the point going to Henley. Federal judge James Selna has tentatively ruled that California senatorial candidate Chuck DeVore violated the rocker's copyrights on two songs ("Boys of Summer" and "All She Wants to Do is Dance") when he used them as the basis for campaign commercials posted on YouTube. In addition, the judge says that DeVore's infringement was likely willful.

While DeVore claims that the First Amendment protected political speech, that he had a fair use right to Henley's work and he was merely parodying Hollywood's affection for liberals, Judge Selna found that DeVore's song "After the Hope of November is Gone" goes far beyond what's necessary to hold the singer up to ridicule.